Hate. Agony. Pain. Fear. Desperation.

The darkness writhed, nourished by these emotions swirling together.

A student desperately wishes to pass her next test. Another fears being bullied. A teacher wishes he knew how to help one falling behind, and laments his failure.

These emotions stirred together, swirling into is gaping maw.

It was going to feed well.

It was almost time.

---

The sun fell.

That slow, steady decline across the sky, heralding the approach of evening. And further beyond, the arrival of night. It stretched the shadows of the trees, buildings, and people on the street longer, as if each ray of light hooked its fingers into them and wouldn’t stop pulling.

It wasn’t a particularly abnormal day.

There wasn’t anything that could be picked out as unusual.

The students of the local High School probably didn’t think anything of it, either. Some lingered behind for clubs or other activities, some of them had already gotten home.

A few lingered behind longer, even now. Maybe their club activities ran late, or maybe they had some other reason.

They’d be an obstacle, one way or another. But one they couldn’t simply remove.

The black-haired girl inhaled deeply. They’d been preparing for this for a while, now. Suppressing it at the school could only work for so long, they had to act directly and destroy it.

Makimura-sensei’s efforts had to be respected, but they couldn’t keep going on forever.

How did one develop this quickly somewhere like this? She supposed the average school did have a lot of clashing emotions.

Hiromi folded her arms with a huff.

Still, it didn’t explain how one that was this much of a potential threat was developing so swiftly. It’d be a disaster if it formed fully during the day, and even now there were still students in the vicinity.

They’d have to act to swiftly contain it in one area and destroy it with as few potential witnesses as possible.

Indeed, that was their assignment. It was why so many students had been sent out in the first place.

The plan was simple. Her team would approach from the south. The other team would approach from the North. Both would enter the school using Hiroe-san’s contract ability to remain unseen, corner the Grudge, and destroy it out of sight before anyone else could get involved and it could grow too large and too dangerous.

Hiromi had no doubt that’d succeed.

If nothing else, she was there, wasn’t she? So that meant there was no chance of failure.

If nothing else, the Kobayakawa family didn’t accept failure.

Thus her path forward was to succeed.

As soon as Hiroe-san gave the signal, they’d be ready to enter. Makimura-sensei would lift the suppression field when they were in range, and they would encircle and destroy it.

All they had to do right now was wait.

The sun sank lower. The shadows stretched longer.

Maybe by the time Hiroe-san was ready, the school’s students would be cleared out entirely? It was all she could hope for right now, but anything more would be too unsubtle.

Was she getting impatient?

Perhaps.

@Raineh Daze@Rune_Alchemist@vietmyke@King Cosmos@PKMNB0Y@Teyao

"This should... Probably be good enough?"

With a deep breath as she leaned back in her seat, Seika glanced briefly though the window to her left. The evening sky had already washed over the town, and her high school was obviously no exception to the rule. While everyone else in her class had left for the day, she had stayed behind to make sure that everyone's physical preparations for the upcoming cultural festival were all ready and accounted for. She couldn't really complain about being saddled with that responsibility, though; while her attention had been directed towards flyers to begin with, creating those had been a simple enough task with the power of the internet and a brother with image editing software. The designs had been passed around and reviewed by most everyone else, but while the heads of the class committee came to a verdict on their own, Seika had been given a new task to keep her occupied... Or so she felt it to be.

Either way, though, it was well past time to head back home and relax a bit. The amount of homework had shrunk, no thanks in part to the festival itself, but that didn't mean that her responsibilities had waned with them. With that thought in mind, the young woman grabbed her bag and, after one last pass to make sure that she hadn't forgotten anything, slipped it on and headed for the door.

With any luck, she could get home before it grew too late...

"I guess we should count ourselves lucky its not the middle of the day, huh?" Hayakawa was huddled around with the rest of the southern team, head low and out of sight as they quietly observed the high school, waiting for the signal. The ball cap pulled over her head did little to hide the bright red jacket she wore, and the mask over her face was doing little to hide her identity as it was currently pulled down to her chin, the well-chewed stick of a lollipop jutting out between her lips. In contrast to her outfit, a rather traditional, ornate looking yumi bow almost as tall as the girl standing was nestled in the crook of her arm. Her leg bounced quietly as she squatted by the others, anxious, impatient, or both.

This was all still new to her, exciting, dangerous, cool. She'd hardly gotten to see a Grudge up close and personal, so she was raring to go. She looked up and around at the rest of the group, and shot a glance at her own equipment.

"So what do we do if they do notice us?" She asked, referring to the students of the local school. "Or if the Grudge gets to one of those schmucks staying late?"

Blue sparks formed in Hayakawa's hand as she tested her powers, careful not to make it too noticeable from their hiding place before quickly snuffing it out, satisfied that she'd be able to form bolts on command.

"What are we gonna do after? Karaoke anyone?"

Her name is Ichinose Kurenai, she is 28, a biology teacher at Yamazaki High School, she is single but interested in a friend she made back in college. She has a corgi, an apartment she can barely afford, and drives an old Toyota she got for cheap, her parents are proud of her but she feels they nag too much about her career choice. Today she had toast for breakfast and a salad for lunch, for dinner she is planning on reheating the Tamagoyaki she didn't finish yesterday.

All in all, Ichinose Kurenai is a completely normal woman with a normal life and a normal future.

How beautiful.

Jinpei allowed the book to disperse as the older woman drove away from the High School. Silently he brought his hands and gave a quiet prayer for Ichinose-san love life, may she finally gather the courage to confess to Hinata-san. Once his praying was done he focused back on the other members of the North team, should he say something? He didn't really know what to say and was feeling kind of shy so perhaps another time. Instead, he focused back on the High School where the Grudge was set to form, he could try to gather more info about it but he had already given in to temptation so he was not keen on losing more memories than needed. But he was really curious about the school (and his teammates), was he willing to risk it? The responsible thing was not doing it but hadn't Grandpa Jun said it was okay to play around from time to time?

What a conundrum.

Hopefully they would give the signal soon.

Chiori

---

When she had always dreamed of being some super hero or some over powered character in some anime or tv show, she had always knew it was really just that. A fantasy. A bit of escapism from her boring day to day life. Now that she actually was one, though...ugh, her stomach hurt just a bit from the anxiety and nervousness. Chiori cast a quiet glance to the others present in her team. Was she really qualified for this sort of thing? She really wanted to run. Just not be here, or a part of this. She wasn't built for this sorta thing!

Beneath her mask, Chiori took a few deep breaths. Right, she was part of the Northern team. The other team was entering from the south. Simple plan. Pincer the thing and beat it to a pulp. It'd probably be fine...right? Right. She just had to not mess up and this would be fine.

Maybe she should strike up a conversation with her teammates? How did one strike up a conversation in this situation anyways? Talk about the weather? Ask if they wanted mochi? None of them looked like they shared her interests. At least her senpai was cute and didn't seem hard to get along with? Right, okay, deep breaths. Just ask. Easy, right?

"...what are we doing?" At least she was good at hiding how nervous she was. Mostly.

Hoga Nao

Yamazaki High School - South Team

There might have been some kind of karma involved, to ensure that the first Grudge hunt Nao went on was at a high school. As punishment for skipping out on class for so long, she now had to save a different school from the manifestation of all the negative bullshit that made her stop going in the first place. Surely being saddled with these strange abilities that she couldn’t even have any fun with because she’d have to pay double for it was bad enough, but she guessed that tricky fox and the universe had different ideas.

Or maybe Grudges appeared at schools all of the time because they were such terrible places to be and it had nothing to do with karma at all. That did make a lot of sense. Damn, that probably meant they’d be sending her to a lot of schools then.

At least this time she likely wouldn’t have to deal with the Grudge directly. She was paired up with the fancy scion of some big shot family and a girl so eager to fight that she was already letting off little bursts of lightning; careful there, you’ll be paying for that later, literally. Nao could just sit back and let them deal with things; save herself having to spend any money at that damn shrine this week.

The lightning girl asked something about what do to if the students got caught up in things and Nao gave a bored answer for her spot squatting beside her, face resting in her palms with her elbows on her knees. “I don’t know, zap them?” That would be fun to see, less so to explain later. “Or let them get eaten? It’s their own fault if they get caught; who would even be at school this late anyway?”

Someone with no life. Were there any clubs that even ran this late? She wouldn’t know, having never been part of one. Nao could just hope that everyone had already left for the day, because if they did run in to anyone it would probably be up to her to distract them or hide them from the Grudge and then she’d probably have to pick up more shifts or find a second part-time job to make up for it.

Stupid fox.

Karaoke sounded fun though.

“Only if you’re paying.”

Whenever she held this sword in her hands, Hikari couldn't help but feel a little strange. She was Japanese, it was Japanese… and it was perfectly straight and far too long. She guessed that was what you got when your weapon's origin predated any notion of Japan as a country, but it still stood out as incongruous. Maybe part of that was also that it was so out of size in comparison to herself?

Well, not all that important, she had senpai duties to be attending to. And not the fun ones, like showing students new to the area where that really nice café with the fancy cakes was hiding. Hm, would this girl like that? She dressed like she wanted something rougher. Or at least more musical.

Maybe they could bond over wearing jackets that didn't go with their uniforms at all.

"In general? Killing a Grudge, same as always," she said after a moment, "Specifically? Waiting for the barrier to go down so we know it's time to go in."

The shadows dragged even longer across the schoolyard.

By this point, a part of Hiromi wondered just how long they'd be waiting.

But then---

The air seemed to ripple. Something perceptible only to those who had been touched directly by the supernatural world, an invisible thing that was impossible to comprehend for the average person.

The ripple spread wider until it seemed to occupy the entire space between the two teams of students and the school, distorting the building housed within it.

Cracks ran out from the center of the initial ripple. Jagged fissures in an entirely non-physical surface that nevertheless had served as a barrier with one very specific purpose.

Soundlessly, it shattered.

Makimura-sensei had lowered the barrier.

It was time.

Failure wasn't a possibility. A powerful Grudge let loose in a place like this would be nothing less then catastrophic.

Hiromi stepped forward, hands tightening as she approached the school. With their dual approach, even if she didn't believe everyone here was of the same competency level, there should be no way for the Grudge to easily escape to a more populated area. That meant that it was a matter of destroying it before it might be able to harm anyone who was still inside.

They had to. Even if she had to do it by herself, she would.

There was no question in her mind.

There was no failure in her mind.

"Let's go," she said, glancing back at the other members of her team, "We can't waste any more time. We'll-"

She paused.

What was that? Certainly she felt the negative energy that emanated from the initial grudge, but there was something else? Another source of negative energy.

"---Tch, Hiroe-san?!"

There wasn't just a single grudge---!

The droopy-eyed, messy-haired, disheveled figure that was Hiroe-san appeared to materialize just ahead of them from thin air. Her clothing was oversized, her expression looked constantly bored, and her hair was as wild and unkempt as it was long.

As irritating as it was, her contract ability was inevitably useful for entering buildings like this.

"We need to get in now!"

When she spoke, Hiroe's tone showed absolutely zero understanding of the gravity of the situation.

"I can't rush it... my ability needs a little more care..." she half-murmured.

Hiromi was already sprinting past the disheveled girl, hand reaching into her bag.

But the lesser sources of negative energy weren't simply remaining in the school.

They were coming out.

It was as if black ooze was flowing out of the walls, dripping down, coalescing into distorted forms. Vaguely, one could describe them as canine, but they lacked any sort of fur. On closer inspection, it was more like a human body had been forced into the shape of a large dog's. But furless, with dark green skin, elongated head ending in a human-like mouth filled with human-like teeth. In place of their eyes were two smaller mouths.

Fully formed grudges? Lesser then the negativity inside the school, but they still should have detected them. What was the support team doing?!

Eyes narrowed, Hiromi reached into her bag, her fingers wrapping around her sword's hilt.

As it was drawn, the blade glittered in the late evening light.

She met the first of the Grudges and caught it in the mouth as it leaped, dragging her katana through its shadowy flesh and spilling dakr ooze from its body.

Hiromi tossed her bag aside, her left hand joining her right on the sword's hilt as the grudge fell in two halves beyond her.

They had to get inside as fast as possible---!

---

Thud.

It would be a strange feeling, one that reverberated through a person's entire being.

Thud.

Perhaps a difficult one to explain, too. What could possibly be making that kind of noise now? When there were so few people left in the school, when the festival was almost at its end?

Thud.

Yet it was a familiar noise, too. One that any person would recognize, even if they couldn't place it immediately.

Thud.

Indeed, perhaps Tenjou Seika would be first to guess, out of the scant few students still on school grounds?

Thud.

One needed only to place their hand to their chest to figure it out.

Thud.

It was a heartbeat. An enormous heartbeat, reverberating through the school walls, down the halls, through every single classroom.

But what could make such a sound?

@PKMNB0Y@vietmyke@Teyao@Rune_Alchemist@King Cosmos@Raineh Daze

Despite nothing being immediately out of the ordinary as she left the classroom, Seika was quick to notice what felt like the entire building shaking at once. It wasn't the type of shaking one would have expected from something like a low-magnitude earthquake, though, but one more akin to someone turning the speakers up to their highest setting at a sports meet or concert. The initial concern that it had been a natural disaster was quickly put to the side, though, as the young student placed one hand on the wall and felt the reverberating beat of... Something pounding away.

"...What the heck is this horror game-like atmosphere all of a sudden?" Seika asked herself, one hand gripping onto her bag as she glanced around. The possibility that a scenario straight out of fiction was bearing down upon her was stuck in the back of her mind, the fact that all paths to the building's exit led towards the source of that ominous heartbeat-like noise did nothing to assuage her concerns.

But rather than choosing to waffle about endlessly as the night drew longer, the young woman chose to instead take a deep breath and simply make her way to the first floor. With any luck, all of this would be inside of her head and she'd just have a new ghost story to tell people during the summer.

Not like she had much of a choice, though; jumping out a window to get off school grounds—and on a higher floor besides—seemed like a great way to end up injured with nothing but paranoia to offer as an excuse for it.

"… Seriously? There was supposed to be only one of them, not a ton of flunkies. Well, same idea, just take care," Hikari sighed, raising Ame-no-Habakiri properly and waiting. She didn't have any fancy tricks to call on for this, any special attacks, just her reflexes, experience—

And a blade that went through such weak grudges like they were made of paper. It was an odd sight, the tiny girl swinging such a long sword, but the results couldn't be argued with. Hikari didn't have muscle to fall back on, nor a spiritual ability that would directly boost her swordsmanship, so only grace born of experience and economy of motion let her cut through the Grudge, trailing ooze.

"Well, come on then; we need to get inside," she added, looking back over her shoulder at her new junior and the rest of the team as if she hadn't just impaled a second doglike-beast as it leapt, allowing its own weight to cut through its shadowy body.

Chiori
North Team

---

That, was not the answer she had been hoping for. Yes, she knew they should kill grudges, but shouldn't they have some sort of gameplan? Some sort of battleplan? A complicated plan with backups upon backups and fail safes? Things never went to plan. Or actually, was this a Shounen? Or the genre well the only plan was just look cool and beat up bad guys with the power of friendship like a sentai or magical girl setting? Her expression outwardly would remain neutral, but internally she was a mess, though that wasn't anything new.

"Eeek-!?"

The sudden appearance of the Grudges caused her to let out a quite unserious and uncool sounding squeal. Oh dear that wouldn't do at all.

"A-ahem, Oh, its just a grudge...just a grudge...small fries-weh!?" Chiori would have only a few moments to react as a grudge almost pounced on her. Almost reflexively, a large mallet would slam into the grudge from the side, the impact reverberating loudly as the creature was batted away like a harmless fly. She had practiced making sure she could summon the weapon quickly nearly every day once she had gotten it. Good thing, apparently.

"...whew...okay. Good. Safe. At least the rabbit ears are cute..." Clearing her throat, and lightly touching her new rabbit ears, she'd bounce after Hikari. Hopefully, Hikari hadn't seen her being totally uncool. "Right. Lead the way, boss."

South Team

---

"You think I'm made of money or something?" Hayakawa half chuckled, half snorted, "I can barely afford to keep that stupid dog of mine fed. That fatty eats better than me."

Kimiko ceased her banter as the barrier lowered- it was go time. Spitting out the worn stick and pulling her mask over her face, she shot Hiromi a nod as she lead them out. Though a spanner was quickly thrown into the works as they found themselves facing not a single grudge within the school, but rather several at once.

"Well thats certainly not part of the plan!" Kimiko cursed as she pulled her bow out of its case, quickly planting her feet a few meters behind Hiromi and her blade. They needed to get inside, that much was obvious, but first they had to stop the rest of these little guys from getting out.

Holding out her arm, Hayakawa quickly let out a breath, a small sliver of lightning crackling in her palm before bursting out into a flickering, somewhat jagged 'stick' of lightning. With practiced ease, Kimiko pressed it against her bowstring and pulled back, taking in a deep breath as she did. Taking aim at the grudge closest to her teammates, Hayakawa exhaled through her nose and released, the bolt of lightning blazing across the lawn and walkway towards its target.

She didn't wait to see if she hit before repeating the process and loosing a second bolt at another target.

"Keep moving up, I'll watch your backs!" She called out as she prepped another bolt.

Listening to the other members of the North Team talk was mildly interesting, one of them was clearly from a civilian background, probably recent even if the concealed nervousness was anything to go by, the other student in contrast seemed almost bored, she also looked almost too young to be out here fighting against Grudges.

Was she a prodigy? or was it contract-related?

Either way, it was clear she was prepared to go against the Grudge at any moment, the sword in her hands made it clear.

Then the barrier broke and smaller Grudges poured towards them. The reactions from his teammates were amusing in their contrast, Sword was graceful and fluid, impaling the lesser grudges with ease before moving towards the next target. Mallet (Rabbit?) on the other hand was erratic and powerful, she seemed to be much more careful than the younger-looking one but was also doing more damage. He himself had only fended off a single one that targeted him, a direct kick to the head made the trick, not that he could keep doing it, even just a slight coating of spirit energy was taxing for his already small reserves.

Making sure the Grudge was truly dead he moved to join his classmates, he wondered if they had some sort of plan.